The adoration of whiteness and the contradiction of black pride/A adoração de brancura e a contradição do orgulho negro

Recently I read a chapter in a book that featured essays written by the late Afro-Brazilian militant, Beatriz Nascimento. In the essay, “Our Racial Democracy”, Nascimento wrote of a conversation she had with a black woman in the city of Salvador, Bahia. The woman pointed to her two children, both of “mixed ancestry”, and said, “This one came out almost like me” (referring to the darker child), “but this one came out better, almost blond.” The woman continued, “This way, blacks will disappear and we won’t have the racial conflict like there is in the United States.” In this woman’s opinion, Brazil and Bahia specifically, were examples of a racial democracy. Her reason for believing that a racial democracy exists is the exact reason that I argue that it doesn’t exist: many Afro-Brazilians are indoctrinated to believe that whiteness and being white are better than being black. Because of this, many believe Brazilian society to be free of racial conflict. In comparison to the United States, where there is a history of racial conflict, Brazil truly appears to be a racial democracy. Many intellectuals argue that Brazil doesn’t have racial problems and always portray the country in a positive light in comparison to the United States. What these intellectuals don’t talk about is the fact that the belief in the racial democracy is based on the fact that many Afro-Brazilians in fact accept a submissive, inferior position in Brazilian society. Many desire and will actually admit the desire to have children with lighter skin and more European features until eventually their descendents look European.

This indoctrination which values whiteness is not restricted to only Brazil but also in many countries that have populations composed of African descendents. I will never forget when I was six years old, the mother of one of my male cousins was pregnant. When someone asked what type of sister he wanted, my cousin exclaimed, “I want a white baby with blue eyes!” I also remember a few years ago when members of my family were describing how they felt when their children were born. One of my female cousins remembered how much pride she felt when she saw her first daughter for the first time. She was beautiful and had light skin. Her second daughter was very dark-skinned. With all of her children in the room, my cousin said that she couldn’t believe how black and ugly her second child appeared. She continued, “I couldn’t believe this black and ugly thing came out of me. She looked like a monkey!” Her comments were deplorable. It was a very humiliating experience for her daughter who was devastated. Her daughter, ten years at the time, later told me that she wanted to cry when she heard her mother describe her in that way. Here lies the contradiction about African-Americans: we claim to have so much pride about being black but we also hate being perceived as “too black” or having features that are perceived as being “too African”. Our own obsession with the European standard of beauty is expressed best by the legendary Malcolm X when he said, “The worst crime the white man has committed has been to teach us to hate ourselves.”